Trainee journalist at Cardiff JOMEC, English & German graduate from the University of Exeter, former editor of Exeposé student newspaper and winner of 'Best Interview' at the 2017 Student Publication Association national awards.

The Great Procrastination Debate

When Rubeus Hagrid famously warned, “There’s a storm coming, Harry. And we all best be ready when she does,” he could well have been talking about my personal war against the evil of procrastination. And at 10:44, I already have plenty of ammunition.

Over two hours ago I woke up with one vital instruction scrawled across my hand from last night – “make a to-do list!!” (Note the double exclamation marks denoting extreme importance).

Message noted, I reached for my iPhone and spent the next 20 minutes gazing at Facebook, then Twitter, then Instagram, then Strava (my running app – you know, just in case I’d knocked out another eight miles in my sleep last night), then Facebook again. Then Twitter.

My stomach then started to complain, so I wandered downstairs, crafted an elaborate muesli and banana breakfast, had an intense, world-changing discussion with Mum about ignorant comments on Guardian articles… then gave Facebook another quick check. Then Instagram. Then Twitter.

You can probably see where I’m going with this. That first hour of my day was completely gone, with very little achieved.

“So what?” you’ll argue. “What’s wrong with chilling for a while sometimes?”

Now, I’m not saying we need to fill every minute with something deemed “productive” – that’d be exhausting. However, after another hour of blatant time-wasting, anxiety began to creep in. I wanted to be getting on with my day, and experiencing that warm, fuzzy “job done” feeling of ticking off another item on the to-do list – still yet to be written.

Procrastination is a false friend for me – I think I’m enjoying myself, mindlessly putting off what I ought to do, but it generally just leaves me with this agitated, discontented sense of not having used my time well.

Every turning-out of the bedside lamp represents another day we’ll never have the opportunity to live again, and I know I go to sleep a lot more contented and relaxed when I’ve achieved everything I wanted to that day.

Besides, in ten years’ time, what are we more likely to be glad we did that bank holiday Saturday – signing ourselves up for nutellastories.com? Watching that video of catwalk models falling over? Or writing that completely ace piece we said we’d do for Exeposé Lifestyle?

Only time will tell, but I know what I’m going for. Once I’ve shared my Nutella Story. And finished watching that video.